Such methods and devices may include the actuation of an operating element, also referred to as emergency shutoff switch, which allows a reliable shutoff or deactivation of the device in the event of, for example, an imminent accident danger or in other critical operating states, the device being, for instance, an internal combustion engine or also an electric machine or some other machine.
Conventional emergency shutoff switches usually have a single channel, so that in the event of a fault in the particular channel, the device to be deactivated is not necessarily responsive to the emergency shutoff switch. As known, emergency shutoff switches are not operated on a regular basis but only in emergencies, so that such a fault would most likely not be discovered in a normal operating state of the device. Faults of this type are therefore also known as so-called “sleeping (latent) faults”.